Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Second rate reporter says what?

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

People are complicated. Love is not.

“woke” is the new caravan.

The words do not have to be perfect.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

This really is a full service blog.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2008 / Living just enough, just enough

Living just enough, just enough

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What a fucking idiot. The first rule of opposing a livable wage is you don’t call it a livable wage.

During Tuesday night’s debate for an open U.S. House seat in Georgia, Republican candidate Karen Handel said that she does not support a “livable wage.”

I’m not raising money for Ossoff because I think the 30 million spent on the race already is enough but let’s keep raising money for the eventual Democratic nominee in all 238 districts Republicans currently hold. Let’s make the next Democratic majority a 435 seat one.

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99Comments

  2. 2.

    ArchTeryx

    That’s hilarious. It also might not hurt her in the least in this district, since it’s mostly richie-rich Republicans that don’t believe in any such thing as a “living wage” – they all got theirs and f*ck you.

    It comes down to if they hate Trump more then they hate the other tribe, and there’s really little either candidate is going to do to change that dynamic.

    So far, Democrats are racking up an impressive series of moral victories, but hatred of Trump is *still* not trumping (sorry) hatred of the other tribe. Not enough. We’ll see if it is here.

  3. 3.

    Jeffro

    I can’t believe I caught her saying it live…I look forward to telling my grandkids about it, in that really boring old person way…

  4. 4.

    Frankensteinbeck

    From what I hear, Handel’s tactic is to motivate her voters by reminding them as often as possible that losing her is one step closer to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It might work.

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    She said it clearly and deliberately: “I do not support a livable wage.” I’m sure in days to come her team will try to spin it as “she misspoke,” “slip of the tongue,” etc., but bullshit to that. She said it clearly and deliberately.

  7. 7.

    Mnemosyne

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Folks in the other thread said it was almost like a tic, the way Handel kept throwing out Pelosi’s name for no reason.

    But misogyny doesn’t exist. No sirree. They hate Pelosi because they’re so economically anxious.

  8. 8.

    ArchTeryx

    @Frankensteinbeck: Yep. It’s a pure tribal rallying cry, and in this district, it’s going to come down to tribal base vs. tribal base. The Republicans outnumber the Ds. If they turn out equally, Handel wins, and the Ds get another “moral victory” – and no closer to actually taking any real power.

    If they don’t, all bets are off.

  9. 9.

    efgoldman

    Someone said in an earlier thread that Ossoff isn’t Velcro-ing her to Copper Caligula’s saggy ass, and that was a good thing?
    He’s the most unpopular politician in the country. Why not? Every Dem candidate should.

  10. 10.

    ArchTeryx

    @Mnemosyne: Remember, Handel is a woman as well. It ain’t pure misogyny here. It’s just a tribal signal. “Ds bad! Rs good! Vote or the hated other tribe gains power!”

    It’s hate vs. hate here. Whose hate is stronger?

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    This vile woman needs to be taken down, and stuffed into a barrel, then shipped to Niagara Falls, then sent over the edge.

  13. 13.

    Mnemosyne

    @ArchTeryx:

    Remember, Handel is a woman as well. It ain’t pure misogyny here.

    This is how I can tell you’re a guy. ? You have NO IDEA how misogynistic many women are, especially white women. It’s a little creepy.

  14. 14.

    JPL

    I don’t think the debate changed anyone’s mind. Jon has facts but Handel is more aggressive. IMO he needs to attack her support of Trump, because what does he have to lose. He wants to appeal to moderate republicans, but moderate republicans are souring on Trump.
    btw.. I already voted, as did my family.

  16. 16.

    Mnemosyne

    @ArchTeryx:

    Also, too — by differentiating herself from Pelosi, Handel is pledging that she will be a Nice Girl who obeys the orders of the men around her and won’t be a ball-busting, power hungry bitch like Pelosi.

  17. 17.

    Kropadope

    @Mnemosyne:

    But misogyny doesn’t exist. No sirree. They hate Pelosi because they’re so economically anxious.

    I’d like to at least allow for the consideration that the particular woman is currently the most prominent elected politician on the other side and presents a convenient target. But these theories are not mutually exclusive and likely, in fact, exist together on a spectrum.

  20. 20.

    Mnemosyne

    All right, ladies and germs, I need to head off to dance class. I’m super excited that we’re going to learn a quadrille — it’s the one period dance I haven’t had a chance to try yet. Toodles!

  25. 25.

    Kropadope

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I’m glad a woman said it, but I have noticed that misogyny is common among women.

    Not as pervasive as it is among men, perhaps, but it may easily be more overt.

  27. 27.

    Kropadope

    @randy khan:

    What the heck is a “livable wage,” anyway? (I mean, other than a sound bite that you can use in properly targeted ads.)

    Rent/mortgage + transportation + food + moderate buffer available to the worker after taxes.

  28. 28.

    Doug!

    @Kropadope:

    There’s something in particular about the way they go after Pelosi (and Hillary) that has a strong misogynist feeling, at least to me.

  29. 29.

    Chet Murthy

    @Kropadope: + rent/mortgage within reasonable commuting distance of job — none of this “work in San Jose, live in fricken’ Merced (116mi one-way)” BS.

  30. 30.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    JC Look,it’s quite simple. You just stay here, and don’t leave me alone with Trump. Got it?
    JS: Got it.
    JC Good.
    JS So…. when he comes in — I leave.
    JC: No… Look, you just stay in here, and make sure you don’t leave the room.
    JS: Oh yes, make sure *I* don’t leave, obviously. But, if I had to leave, and…
    JC No, just stay in here…
    JS: …while you — or anyone else..
    JC: No, just me….
    JS: Just you..
    JC .. and Trump.
    JS and Trump…
    JC are talking.
    JS are talking. Got it. So, I leave when he arrives, but then I come back…

  31. 31.

    Chet Murthy

    @Doug!: -and- Susan Rice. -and- Valerie Jarrett. But esp. Susan Rice — she gets the same sorta two-minute hate that Hillz gets, only less often, b/c she’s less prominent. But when it’s her turn, it’s just as vitriolic.

  32. 32.

    MJS

    @randy khan: Umm, a wage that one can live and raise a family on? A wage that does not also require government assistance to get by? A wage that allows for decent housing, food, transportation, etc.? But those are just guesses on my part.

  33. 33.

    Jeffro

    @Doug!: Rs always need a boogeyman, and it seems to help them even more if the boogeyman is a woman. Or black. Or a Clinton.

    Pelosi is that stereotypical “San Francisco liberal”, so I guess that means bonus points for voting against her? If I were Ossoff, I would have mocked the holy hell out of Handel for it. “Karen, you seem to have a real fixation on Nancy Pelosi for some reason…is she in this race? Do you have anything else to offer the voters of GA-6?”

  35. 35.

    Major Major Major Major

    Ah man, the pelosi bogeyman is so funny to me because out here all the activists hate her for not impeaching Bush and jailing bankers and whatnot. Insufficiently pure! She weighs as much as a duck!

  37. 37.

    Kropadope

    @randy khan:

    I believe that usually it’s called a living wage. My point is that she can’t even get the terminology right.

    OIC. Well, that’s because she’s probably only tangentially aware of the issue because, paraphrasing the Republican mindset, “who gives a fuck how much the plebes make?”

  41. 41.

    different-church-lady

    Partial WaPo online headline just now:

    Trump, furious and frustrated…

    In other words, Tuesday.

  42. 42.

    JPL

    Betty Price is very popular in the district, and at some point I assume she will campaign to try to protect her husband’s seat. What is interesting though, is why hasn’t she cut ads on tv for her yet? hmmm

  44. 44.

    JPL

    The sixth district has always voted for higher taxes for education, and I wish that Ossoff would have mentioned that. She is against higher taxes, and I assume that means for our military and education.

  45. 45.

    Patricia Kayden

    @efgoldman: I don’t get any Democratic strategy where we’re not tattooing Trump to the Republican opponent’s forehead. That man is an albatross.

  46. 46.

    Another Scott

    Done.

    Is Alain still going to try to put this thermometer in the right column, so we have a frequent reminder to put our coffee (or tea) money there?

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  48. 48.

    LosGatosCA

    Let’s see, in an upscale district in a red state, in the South where even the WWC doesn’t believe in a livable wage for themselves, hence right to work laws and union vote losses across the region, we’ll find out how many member’s of Jay Gould’s Army there are.

    The cult is strong, it’s never wrong. We’ll see if it’s strong enough

  51. 51.

    Kay

    The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee told USA TODAY on Tuesday that Russian attacks on election systems were broader and targeted more states than those detailed in an explosive intelligence report leaked to the website The Intercept.
    “I don’t believe they got into changing actual voting outcomes,” Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said in an interview. “But the extent of the attacks is much broader than has been reported so far.” He said he was pushing intelligence agencies to declassify the names and number of states hit to help put electoral systems on notice before midterm voting in 2018.

    They have to tell people. This is ludicrous. It isn’t all about prosecutions or gathering information. There’s a time limit on when this information will be useful to the people in states who actually have to run elections and they’re running out of time. If no one knows what’s going on by 2018 it will be two years and two elections this was going on and voters had no clue.

    They seem to have forgotten that elections involve voters. That’s the public interest. It isn’t all about Donald Trump and gathering information on his co-conspirators, or whatever. It’s like saying “we’re not going to tell you someone is making withdrawals from your bank account because we’re building a case on the thief- just one more withdrawal and we’ll have enough evidence!”. You have to give them the information so they can move their money.

  57. 57.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    OT: We could’ve told you five years ago… in fact, we did

    Justin Miller‏ @ by_jmiller
    It’s official: After 5 years, the Kansas legislature has undone Brownback’s trickle-down tax experiment with a veto override.

  62. 62.

    burnspbesq

    @Kay:

    The impact of this information is asymmetrical; it mostly helps Democrats put pressure on Republican Secretaries of State or equivalent. Which means that Republicans will obfuscate, obstruct, deny, and generally say “GFY.” Per omnia saecula saeculorum, amen.

  63. 63.

    Jeffro

    @Omnes Omnibus: Just a suggestion: a major political figure (let’s pretend we had a functioning president) could give a speech to the American people, noting what had happened (both known and suspected), steps that were being taken to prevent it in the next election, and sanctions or other penalties being imposed on the guilty parties (i.e. Russia, Cambridge Analytica, etc)

    But I’m picturing Obama in this role of ‘major political figure’, not the traitorous sellout we have now…so hopefully PBO or some other Dem will step up and help folks connect the dots. And soon.

  66. 66.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Doug!: I may live in a more international policy oriented world than you do. She gets plenty, but less than the black woman. Go figure.

  68. 68.

    amk

    @Kay:

    It wasn’t just the National Security Agency that knew about Russian attempts to infiltrate U.S. voting systems.

    In the weeks leading to the 2016 presidential election, the then-leader of the Democratic National Committee warned the Department of Homeland Security that voter registration and absentee voting lists might have been sabotaged.

    Donna Brazile, who was serving as the party’s acting chairwoman, said she also urged Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus to learn more about the possible problems and to sign a joint statement with her, raising these concerns to DHS.

    Priebus declined, Brazile told McClatchy on Tuesday.

    “There is fear that the goal of a hacker attack on the voter list is to delete or alter names or other information and cause incidents at the polling stations,” Brazile wrote in an Oct. 18 letter to Priebus, now President Donald Trump’s chief of staff.

    DHS officials assured her that investigators would contact election officials in all 50 states as part of its investigation into Russia’s attempted hacking into election machinery, which according to a new report, was broader than previously known.

    State and local election officials, including those whose systems were targeted, said they were contacted but were not told about the seriousness of a potential hack or that Russia was the instigator.

    “Why weren’t election officials made aware of the threat to protect their systems?” asked Kay Stimson, spokeswoman for the National Association of Secretaries of States.

  70. 70.

    Kropadope

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Who is this they?

    Anyone The Republicans whose interests lie the Republicans in people not recognizing threats to their right to vote or the integrity thereof. the Republicans.

  71. 71.

    Peale

    @amk: the problem is, I fear, the absence of stories from voters who showed up to the polls to be turned away. You would think that poll monitors would notice something. Or we could find voters who were told that they were no longer on the rolls. Have I been missing these stories?

  72. 72.

    Anne Laurie

    @ArchTeryx:

    Remember, Handel is a woman as well. It ain’t pure misogyny here.

    It’s the “minority” version of the Highlander credo: THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE.

    Handel is identifying herself as the singular good woman, not like those other rapacious lying lazy lie-brul wimmen. She’s their I’m Not A Misogynist I Have A Female Legislator token.

  73. 73.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @amk:

    “Why weren’t election officials made aware of the threat to protect their systems?” asked Kay Stimson, spokeswoman for the National Association of Secretaries of States.

    GOP coup by conservatives serving in government agencies like the NSA/underestimating the threat from Russia. Welcome to the South, pre-Civil Rights Movement. Jim Crow is coming back, this time nationwide. Forever. Kiss free and fair elections goodbye. GOP uber alles. Fuck.

  77. 77.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Laura Rozen‏ @ lrozen 55m55 minutes ago
    “Trump is personally reaching out to some allies on the Senate Intelligence Committee ahead of their questioning of Comey”

    Li’l Marco and Tom Cotton have been invited to dinner at the White House tomorrow night.

  78. 78.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @Omnes Omnibus: Freaking out a little. That’s all. Sorry.

    I shouldn’t have said it, because I don’t want to scare or depress anyone. Just very worried for the future. As a party they’re not fit to govern and scare the hell out of me. Incompetent authoritarians ruling over us is a double-edged sword.

  80. 80.

    Chet Murthy

    @Omnes Omnibus: Contra Kropadope, I think you’re right to ask the question. And the answer includes our Dem tribunes. At some point, they need to stand up and tell us all what happened, *in detail* and articulate a plan for how we can fight back at the level where our election apparatus is run — the states. And then (of course) the Red States will ignore it. But at least, blue voters in red states can plan for when their franchise is attacked, to make it publicly known. And if there are any patriotic government officials left in the red states, they can try to do their jobs.

    But yeah, I was dismayed to read that Warner said “oh, it’s worse than that news report said, man”. As someone said up-thread (or down-blog), at some point somebody needs to tell us all. We’re the voters, ffs: It’s *our* democracy, not theirs.

  81. 81.

    Chet Murthy

    @Anne Laurie: AL, I’d like to suggest that perhaps there’s more than this going on. She’s also using the Phyllis Schlafly playbook: attacking women’s rights and shoring up the patriarchy is *part* of her game plan, *part* of how she gets elected. Like they used to say about Schlafly — she spent her career denying other women the very opportunities that her career offered her. It was part of the game plan.

  84. 84.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’ve started giving money to campaigns recently. I may do volunteer work for campaigns in 2018. I have written emails to my congressmen as well. I understand what you’re saying and I’ll try. I just worry it may not be enough

  86. 86.

    NMgal

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: My mom, born 1927, was a good example. Smart, intermittently aware and self-aware, definitely a product of her time and subculture. On one hand, encouraged me (a goil) to be whatever I wanted, screw the haters. On the other hand: “If I got on an airplane and the pilot was there greeting people and it was a woman, I’d get off the plane. I know it doesn’t make any sense, but I would. Women aren’t pilots.” There’s a deep-seated, emotional component to what many people think is acceptable in terms of gender roles.

  87. 87.

    joel hanes

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    [just enough] for the city

    Maybe my favorite Stevie Wonder song.
    Mostly he doesn’t do angry, but in that song, you can hear the rage build until it rends his voice.

  88. 88.

    Chet Murthy

    @NMgal: I must demur. Just because someone is able to be open-minded about their kith and kin, doesn’t excuse their closed-minded-ness when it comes to strangers. I’ll give a (somewhat) example: I was raised a red-blooded small-town Texas boy. Which means … gay people? *ick*. Also, *ick*. And finally, *ick*. I thought I was “open-minded” b/c I felt “well, they’re icky, but I guess they have a right to live, as long as I don’t need to know about ’em”. And believe you me, in small Texas towns, the bigotry towards gay people is *deep-seated*. I mean *deep-seated*. Like: “kids get attacked if their classmates think they’re gay” (this happened to me — yeah, go figger, bags of hammers are smarter than many Texans).

    When a (really good) friend of mine came out to me, he knew what I thought — because he asked me immediately beforehand. And he came out to me anyway [I cannot imagine the courage that took]. I’m unashamed to be able to say that I was able to see him as a friend first, and then to do the math: “if he’s not *ick* even though he’s gay, then other gay people must not be *ick* either”. But my previous beliefs, howsoever deep-seated, howsoever emotional (b/c it’s all about disgust) were truly shameful.

    I’m not saying she’s a horrible person. There’s a spectrum to all these things. But just b/c something is deep-seated, doesn’t mean it’s excusable.

  89. 89.

    Anne Laurie

    @Chet Murthy:

    She’s also using the Phyllis Schlafly playbook: attacking women’s rights and shoring up the patriarchy is *part* of her game plan, *part* of how she gets elected. Like they used to say about Schlafly — she spent her career denying other women the very opportunities that her career offered her. It was part of the game plan.

    Yeah, that’s what I meant by “token”: It’s important for ‘civilized’ Repubs to have the occasional woman / person of color / LGBT representative on hand, to demonstrate that they’re Not Like That.

    It’s a nice position for life, if you’re Phyllis Schafly, and don’t have a conscience to corrode.

  90. 90.

    Chet Murthy

    @Anne Laurie: Oh, aha, sorry, I didn’t understand what you meant. Yep. Ben Carson, Nikki Haley, Bobby Jindal, and others. Dinesh D’Felon. *sigh*

  91. 91.

    Suzanne

    I support Karen Handel not having a livable wage. Or any wage. Unemployment looks good on her.

  92. 92.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Chet Murthy:

    “kids get attacked if their classmates think they’re gay”

    Yep. I certainly faced violence, screamed insults, and general harassment because straight white males thought I was gay, in Kentucky in the late 80s and 90s. To add a couple of curious notes to that, my best friend of those years said he was only able to admit to himself he’s gay because he felt like I wouldn’t care, and he also said he would hide in my ‘straight shadow’ when he didn’t want other gay men to hit on him. To straight men, I looked gay. To gay men, I looked overwhelmingly straight (I am). He called this ‘flamingly straight.’

  93. 93.

    Suzanne

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I’m glad a woman said it, but I have noticed that misogyny is common among women.

    Of course. Some women do really well under patriarchy. Tearing that down means surrendering advantage.

    There’s also the rather common human experience that I observe in which some people don’t want to see others find happiness in a way different than they did, because admitting that might cause them to question their own choices and no one is psychologically comfortable acknowledging that they’re wrong.

  95. 95.

    joel hanes

    no one is psychologically comfortable acknowledging that they’re wrong

    I know this is a dead thread, but …

    Practicing engineeers must learn early in their career to publicly point out and acknowledge their own errors and mistakes if they want to succeed (they must, of course, also _fix_ those mistakes as soon as practicable). Engineers who get defensive about mistakes are not respected nor trusted by their peers; engineers who refuse to admit mistakes are professionally doomed.

    You cannot talk physics into giving you a better grade.

    I always thought that one of the best things about high-school basketball was the custom that when you knew you had fouled the other guy, and the ref blew the whistle, you acknowledged the foul by raising your hand. High. This is actual sportsmanship.

    With practice, openly acknowledging your own mistakes can be emotionally liberating.

  96. 96.

    Ruckus

    @NMgal:
    It takes a hard look to get past what you’ve been told all your life. And yet women flew war planes in WWII. Not in combat but delivering them. Still, they made it around the country and across the oceans. People use to say that women couldn’t drive semi trucks and yet they do every day. Some just have to have someone, anyone to play oneupmanship with. If they can find an entire gender/race/tribe that’s OK with them. They can’t imagine that they are equal to anyone else or that they might just be less capable than people that don’t look like them or talk like them or………..
    I used to race motorcycles and there were people faster than me and slower than me. But one “friend” and one friend’s wife could not deal with the concept that on some day, even if it were only one day, that I could be faster. People are competitive, some deal with this in a realistic manner, they compete at sports or business and understand that at some time they won’t be the fastest, or best or whatever and can still enjoy seeing others take their place. Some don’t have the tools to deal with this, the concept that someone else might be better at something or might be equal to them is not an understandable concept.

  98. 98.

    Citizen Alan

    @NMgal:

    A theory: In every movie or TV show in which there is a problem with a flight and a danger of a plane crashing, it always shows the pilot in the cockpit physically struggling with the control column. I think that leads people to believe that physical strength is actually important in flying a plane, or at least a lot more important than it actually is.

  99. 99.

    Origuy

    @Ruckus: The Soviets had a bomber regiment made up entirely of women, the 588th Night Bomber Regiment. The Germans called them the “Night Witches”.

    The regiment flew in wood-and-canvas Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes, a 1928 design intended for use as training aircraft and for crop dusting, and to this day the most-produced wood-airframed biplane in aviation history. The planes could carry only six bombs at a time, so 8 or more missions per night were often necessary.[5] Although the aircraft were obsolete and slow, the pilots made daring use of their exceptional maneuverability; they had the advantage of having a maximum speed that was lower than the stall speed of both the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, and as a result, German pilots found them very difficult to shoot down. An attack technique of the night bombers was to idle the engine near the target and glide to the bomb release point, with only wind noise left to reveal their location. German soldiers likened the sound to broomsticks and named the pilots “Night Witches.”[1] Due to the weight of the bombs and the low altitude of flight, the pilots carried no parachutes.[6]

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